Effective research in water science requires combining information from multiple sources which requires collaboration and working as a team or community and hydrologic information systems to support sharing, discovery, analysis, management, and publication of data and computer models. Collaborative platforms and data tools are being developed to aid researchers, students, citizen scientists, and educators in accomplishing these tasks so that they can better focus their efforts on addressing the scientific issues. The Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI)-SCOPE team evaluated one such collaborative platform, HydroShare, which was funded by the National Science Foundation and is now maintained by CUAHSI, that enables sharing and publishing of hydrologic data and models. The CUAHSI-SCOPE team conducted user-based research, in the form of interviews, codesign, UX tests, and prototyping, among other methods, to evaluate and design an improved user experience for HydroShare. The user-oriented project focused on identifying key users and workflows, defining current limitations of the system, and developing a comprehensive document of design recommendations. The SCOPE team also documented their design process in order to inform future improvements to HydroShare.